Testing Machiavelli
by SEEKER-2000
Summary: Spinelli & Claudia centered. Is it better to be loved or feared? When seeking power, the end justifies the means. Two people on opposite sides of a fight for that power find common ground with each other. Not romantic, yet. We'll see if I go that route.


**Testing Machiavelli **

**Prologue: The End**

The smoke was billowing in quickly now, dark grey death sweeping in from underneath the cracks of the door. Soon the room would be filled to the brim with poisonous air that would render the two people trapped inside unconscious, just in time for the flames to sweep in and take them both. At least, he hoped they would be blacked out by then. Spinelli managed to shudder even as the extreme heat building in the room flooded his senses. This was it. Game over.

"The vent!" Claudia yelled suddenly, her voice shaking him out of his thoughts. Spinelli turned to see where she was pointing. The small warehouse office creaked around him as the building's supports started shifting around the destruction of the flames. A small vent was just over their heads. He didn't know what good it would do. Claudia's dark eyes searched his for a moment.

"What are we supposed to do?" He called to her, coughing on some smoke. She scrambled back over to his side, brushing the smoke out of her air as she passed through the swiftly graying room.

"Can you walk?" She gasped, her eyes rolling as the smoke became thicker. His skin tingled from adrenaline but the air was so thick now he couldn't register what to do to save himself. The pain in his leg was excruciating but it was nothing compared to the fear that was welling up in him now. It was even worse knowing that the woman who rarely showed fear looked terrified now.

Spinelli shook his head as he gently tested the leg, probably broken. "No…it's useless…" Icy hot pain shot through the appendage, causing him to suck in some of the poison cloud. Spinelli felt Claudia's hand on the side of his face, forcing him to look her in the eyes.

"I'm so sorry I got you involved in this." Claudia's broken voice was exhausted and sincere.

"The Jackal…I was already involved…" Spinelli grumbled, hating that she was talking to him as if they were about to die. He wasn't ready to say goodbye yet. Jason could show up and save them…Something could happen…

But he knew that was wrong. There was no escaping this inferno. Claudia blinked rapidly and turned her attention back onto the vent. She clawed at the screws with her fingernails, trying to twist them out of their place with all of her concentration, shaking digits slipping over the metal locks as the same sort of realization about their fate must have been slipping over her at that moment too. Metal clanged in the room beside them, the heat obviously taking over the closest quarters. He could hear the flames now, loud destruction blasting its own disharmony around him. His hear beat faster.

"Damn it, just come undone!" Claudia screamed, ripping at the vent. Spinelli inched as best he could on his bad leg over to her side, each step shooting lightning through his skin. He pulled on the vent too, and their combined efforts sent the cage sailing from its holding. The vent was small but they could fit through it. The only problem was that it was over both of their heads.

"Okay, now what?" Spinelli gasped, blinking smoke out of his eyes. Claudia tugged on the ends of her hair.

"This is the only thing I know to do! I'm sorry!" She explained, throwing her hands out at her sides.

Spinelli shook his head. "It's fine. The vent has to lead somewhere. Probably to another smoke filled room, but maybe it will have an exit…Or it could lead to an outside vent…We just need to get out of here!"

Claudia paused, thinking quickly. She quickly reached for Spinelli and began lifting him as best as she could.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Spinelli yelled, struggling against her. Claudia lost her grip on him and sat him back down.

"You need to go first!"

"Why? Why not you?"

Claudia frowned, pointing at his leg. "Your leg won't be able to lift my weight. I'll hoist you in, you get in the vent, and then pull me up."

Spinelli hesitated. "No. No, you can go first."

"Damn it, Spinelli we're running out of time!"

"Don't you do this as some sort of self-sacrifice, balancing the books kind of thing!" Spinelli screamed at her.

The smoke was blacker; he could almost not see her face, even though her face was just a few inches away from his. She was trying to make things right at the last minute. He wasn't going to let her get her forgiveness without putting up a fight. He wanted to see her on the other side of this fire, when her salvation wasn't hanging in the balance.

"I'm not. I promise. You will lift me out," Claudia assured him, each word falling heavily on his ears. A promise. She wouldn't give up.

"Okay."

Claudia moved quickly, getting a good grip around his waist. Spinelli reached above him for the base of the vent, pulling himself up as best as he could as Claudia added her own strength to the struggle. He was lifted in, gently pulling his broken leg behind him. As soon as he had a solid grasp on his balance and surroundings, he reached down out back into the room for Claudia's hand.

"You okay?" She asked, her voice sounding scared.

He fumbled in the grey for her hands. "I'm safe and secure, Vixenella, now let's get you in the same sort of position, shall we?" He tried to sound light, knowing that if this plan of escape didn't work it was over. Her clammy hands found his and gripped them tightly.

"I'm so sorry…So sorry…" Claudia mumbled to herself. "Please, hold on a second…I need to catch my breath…"

"No, Claudia, we have to go now!" Spinelli beckoned into the clouds.

"Okay," She agreed. The words were not filled with the tenacity as her previous ranting had been. He wondered if she was starting to feel the effects of the smoke. The vent wasn't as thick with smoke just yet, he was able to think a little clearer. Spinelli tugged on her hands, trying to get a grip to pull her up into the vent on his own if he had to. If this vent led nowhere, they were dead already. If it led to another smoke filled room, they had to start all over looking for an escape. If heaven was on their side, it would lead to clear air. But they couldn't find out their fate if Claudia didn't get up in the damn vent in the first place.

"Claudia!"

"I'm trying!" She called to him, her raven hair moving in and out of the toxic air. He pulled on her arms more, hoping she would react and fight for herself if he could just give her some sort of help. The sound of her boots scraping on the side of the wall as she attempted to climb up to meet him were pathetically patting against the concrete wall. They'd waited too late. She was trapped in the black haze now, and he wasn't seeing perfectly himself.

Well, he wasn't going to leave without her.

Claudia slipped in the midst of her struggles to scale the wall and flitted through his grasp, tumbling back into the darkening storm. He didn't see her, but heard her thud against the ground painfully. A moan of pain met his ears.

"Claudia?"

His question fell into the crackling room and waited for an answer. Nothing. "Claudia, please? Come on…we're out of time!"

Spinelli blinked, searching the thickened air with his eyes for a sign of her. Things were glowing slightly now, parting the smoky darkness.

The fired had reached them completely now.

A loud whine from above them both sounded and Spinelli realized what it was way too late. The ceiling crackled and grumbled as metal bent under the stress of a fire damaging the floor above them. He could hear but not see the destruction coming.

Claudia never saw it coming either. She was crushed beneath the ruins of the ceiling and the structure above them, the air swiftly shifting around the falling debris in one foul moment. Spinelli felt the building shake as it began crumbling in on itself. He was rocked in his safe place, dust flying into his face.

The air was a little clearer for a moment as the dust and smoke tried to decide where it should really be. He saw the flames clearly now, the metal and concrete bruising the ground all around where Claudia had been. She was nowhere to be seen now, covered, buried, masked.

"Claudia!" Spinelli called out, this time knowing, somehow, there would only be silence in return.

………

**A/N: Welcome to my new fic. It will be centered around Claudia and Spinelli. Yeah. I don't know where I'm taking them. I'm going to let the story figure itself out. Will they go romantic? Who knows! Will it just be an intense friendship? Perhaps! We shall see.**

**This chapter is really at the **_**end**_** of the story. The rest of the fic will be flashbacks explaining how Spinelli and Claudia ended up trapped in this fiery warehouse. **

**Claudia is hungry for power but finds herself having a soft spot for her enemy's friend. Machiavelli knew that power is everything, and those who really want it should go to any lengths to get it. He even said ****"It is best to be both feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both it is better to be feared than loved." Claudia will test this theory. **

**Machiavelli also believed that the end justified the means. Bwha. **

**PLEASE REVIEW! I would LOVE to know your thoughts. **

**NEXT Chapter: Early signs of friendship. **


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